


Lulls Between Waltz Steps

by argle_fraster



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-01
Updated: 2011-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-26 18:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argle_fraster/pseuds/argle_fraster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything and nothing was happening all at once. Set in-series, ambiguously time-lined, when Heero and Trowa are inside of Oz.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lulls Between Waltz Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in June of 2008.

If Heero was surprised to see him, holding a gun at a precarious angle against his temple, then he didn't show it– but Trowa had learned to expect that from him. The soldiers led him down the brightly lit corridor, where he looked jaundiced in the harsh flourescant lights, and roughly shoved him into one of the smaller cells. Trowa waited as he was told, pistol still outstretched, because there was too much at stake to give anything away now. He'd noticed the way Heero had still halted when raising his right arm, and the way he winced when he fell on it against the stone.

Trowa didn't need any reminders of the injury. He'd already seen enough.

He waited until the soldiers locked the cell door, the keys clicking, and the sound echoing through the passage, and then followed them down the hall once more.

\--------

He waited until night fell, when the majority of the base slipped into quiet dreams. He knew the schedule of the guard rotations, and which ones tended to sneak off for some extra REM time, and he took care with keeping his footsteps as light as possible on the tiles. It would have been easier without the uniform, but the insignia gave him, at the very least, a more viable excuse for being out in the prison ward in the first place, and the benefits outweighed the unfortunate added weight in his boots.

The hall was quiet when he made his way down it, and Heero's cell was dark. He slipped alongside the wall that met the steel door, and waited. He knew Heero too well to think the other man would sleep through his arrival.

He was right; he heard Heero shuffling within the cell, and the irons on his wrists clinked angrily.

"It was smart," Heero said. His voice sounded lower; husky– though whether from the pain or the confinement, Trowa didn't know. "Smart, you know, infiltrating Oz."

"Seemed like the easiest way to gain access to the information I needed," Trowa replied. There was a pause; the quick beat of his heart. "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Heero asked. He laughed wryly. "The same thing you are, just went about it a different way."

"The scientists are here," Trowa said.

"Hn," Heero said. It was as close to a curious question he was going to get, but Trowa heard footsteps down the hall, and couldn't risk being seen conversing with the prisoner. He fell away from the stones, and risked a glance inside the cell. Heero was slumped against the far wall, hands lying on the floor in front of him, metal clasped firmly around his arms.

"It isn't safe," Trowa said, and he really didn't need to– the other obviously knew. "I'll be back later."

He slipped away without another word from Heero.

\--------

He found the scientists the next day, working on a new pair of mobile suits. He didn't ask why, and he didn't have to– their carefully neutral expressions told him all that he needed to know. He settled himself on one of the crates near the workstation and watched them for awhile.

It became apparent, after awhile, that the two suits were more than merely a pair; they were connected to each other through a system. Working in tandem, they could achieve both offense and defense against enemies. Trowa wasn't sure if it was brilliant, or positively mad.

Doctor J was the first one to slide over to him.

"Do you like them?" he asked.

"Are you doing this to sabotage Oz?" Trowa asked, trying to keep his voice light. "Or to help them?"

"Sometimes, my boy," J sighed, "the two are one and the same."

\--------

"I think Oz is going to choose pilots for the new suits from within the organization," Trowa said, leaning back against Heero's cell door. "I only hope I've stood out enough."

"It's amazing that they haven't suspected you yet," Heero supplied. His voice was slightly muffled by the steel separating them. "You have to keep your abilities to a minimum."

"It's a fine balance," Trowa agreed. He sighed and let his head fall back against the door. They sat in silence for a long time, until the next shift bell rang, and Trowa had to return to his bunk.

\--------

He got his assignment a few days later, to pilot one of the new suits– called the Mercurius and the Vayeate. He was surprised, however, when the higher-ups allowed Heero to pilot the other one. He wasn't sure if it was because they knew Heero was a Gundam pilot, or because of some other reason he didn't want to wrap his head around; it didn't really matter, anyway.

Both pilots found themselves in the largest Oz loading dock, standing in front of the twin suits. Trowa was careful not to look at Heero while they were under supervision from the higher-ups.

Inside, his suit was similar to the cockpit design of his Gundam; which made sense, after all. He took a few moments to familiarize himself with the designs, and then powered up the system. The familiar whir around him as it shuddered online was comforting. Heero's face appeared on his comlink, and the other vid screen whirled to life with his commander's face.

"Watch him," Une ordered. "Do not let him out of your sight."

Trowa didn't answer, and the two suits sped out past the bulkhead.

"I don't think they can track this line," Heero mused on the second screen. His face was a mask of concentration. "They did good."

Assuming that he was referring to the scientists, Trowa could only agree.

"Test out the suit," he suggested. "We'll see what parameters we're working with."

\--------

It became an easy, steady routine– the two would take the suit pair out and spar with mobile DOLLs, and they'd exchange information over the built-in com system. Trowa knew they were recording all of their reaction times and fighting strategies on the nav computers; he'd seen his control board blinking at him, the steady red light heralding the recording. There seemed to be no way to stop it, so he let it continue unhindered.

"Where is your Gundam?" he asked Heero, over the private line.

"I left it on Earth," the other replied. Trowa wondered when the two had begun thinking so much alike; he had done the same. "It's harder to disguise something that big up in space."

Heero feinted to one side and slashed quickly with the beam saber to destroy several mobile DOLLs in front of them. Trowa swung up from behind and smashed in one suit with his defense slabs.

"They're going to program these suits with our fighting abilities," Trowa commented, though he was fairly sure Heero had already figured that out.

"Yeah," the other answered, slowly, drawing the word out. They spun around a second group of DOLLs and took them out with a joint attack. The field now empty, they stayed motionless until command sent out a new fleet of mobile suits to fight. Heero's voice crackled over the comline. "I'm glad you made it here."

He caught Trowa off-guard.

"Duo, you know, he got caught," Heero continued, and Trowa wondered if he knew he was rambling. "I got him out, but it's careless."

Trowa smirked a bit then; there _was_ a compliment deeply hidden in the words.

"So did you," he said, flicking a switch to get the controls over to auto while they waited for the next unit of DOLLs to reach them.

Heero let out a bark of a laugh.

"So I did," he said.

\--------

Later that night, Trowa brought Heero a bowl of cereal he knew he liked best from their time together. By the end of the fight, Heero's slashes were off by a fraction of a second– that arm never had healed quite right. He waited while Heero finished the bowl, keeping his eyes sharp outside the cell.

"Have you heard anything about the others?" Heero asked, pushing the bowl away. It scraped across the stone floor.

"No," Trowa answered. They fell into an easy silence, and he wondered if maybe it was better that way.

\--------

Trowa wasn't there when they deposited Wufei in Heero's cell, but he heard about it through the gossip mill, and wasn't surprised to find the Chinese boy there when he showed up to get Heero for the mobile suit session. Wufei didn't say anything when Trowa opened the door; he'd been too well trained for such a careless slip, but Trowa could feel his eyes as they walked away, sliding the door shut behind them.

Heero was quiet during the session. They worked in silent tandem until there was a break in the fighting as the second round of DOLLs were powered up in the loading dock behind them.

"You know him, right?" Heero asked suddenly, and Trowa was confused for a moment.

"Wufei?" he asked. There was a barely noticeable nod across the vid screen. "Yes."

Quiet again. The second round of DOLLs came out, and they made short work of them together, favoring the strategy of blocking all shots with the defense field as Heero shot out from behind Trowa with beam saber ready. As the dust cleared from the explosions, dissipating into nothing, Trowa heard the other sigh over the link.

"It could have been any of us here," Heero said. "Piloting these."

Trowa just frowned at him. Heero shrugged and didn't make eye contact, busying himself with clicking over several controls on the board in front of him.

"I'm glad it's you I'm fighting with," he said. It was the usual bluntness, but– different.

"Yeah," Trowa said, and allowed himself to smile. "Me too."


End file.
